They have figured out how to make money even when the U.S. and European economies have been stagnant and their earnings and cash flow make them less dependent on the banking system than other firms.
Quinn Group chief executive Liam McCaffrey told the Irish Times on Friday that the family's ability to pay back the money it owes Anglo-Irish was dependent on a "very robust" Quinn Insurance group, either through "cash-flow or disposal".
"But, ' adds Mel Reasoner, Director of the Mountain Research Initiative, "in many arid and semi-arid areas, people are dependent not only on the amount of glacier melt water, but on the timing of the water flow.